emphasis on the red meat sector - USA, Europe

MEAT MARKETING; EMPHASIS ON THE RED MEAT SECTOR - USA, EUROPE

SIMON WEAVER 1996 NUFFIELD SCHOLAR

Simon Weaver (R) and Andrew Hunter (L) at their 1200 head dairy unit in Hungary.

Here I am in France, we have stopped on-route at a small B&B and in the morning we have investigated next door, as we heard sheep in the night, so we introduced ourselves to the farmer and his wife, had a tour of their goat milking enterprise and seen their sheep flock. We have also blagged our way into a trout farm next to the sheep farm. On the one hand I am just a nosey farmer, on the other hand my Nuffield Scholarship, all those years ago, has given me a desire to satisfy my curiosity, understand how agriculture and business works throughout the world and make contacts wherever I can.

All those years ago I travelled to North America and studied the marketing of beef. I remain fascinated by the subject and if you ask, I doubt I have contributed a huge amount to change the industry, although, I do think there are aspects of our industry that are beginning to shine. However, perhaps the real impact has been on the way I think and the bit of influence I can make to farming and to farming’s wider community. Like many before me, on completing my Nuffield there was a frustration in coming home, 2 months of travelling delivers, practically every day, a meeting with achievers and extraordinary people who shine in their environment. There is a self-expectation that some around you should do the same, there are risks to be taken, opinions given, influences made. I suspect with the gift of hindsight this is the real challenge of Nuffield.

Shortly after completing my scholarship, I was very fortunate to establish a business in Eastern Europe with my fellow Scholar Andrew Hunter and to be joined by 2 more Scholars Chris Combes and Nick Tapp. We now have a board of 5 including 4 Scholars, surely some sort of record, and 25 years on have farmed in Hungary, Serbia and the Ukraine with a loyal band of shareholders.

I suspect no one reading this will be surprised how Scholars pop up. I have chaired grain co-ops, been a board member of First Milk and currently sit as a non-exec on the board of OMSCO, I have served on committees and attended random meetings, everywhere there are Nuffield Scholars! I am proud to be part of that group of people. I never fail to be amazed by their depth of knowledge, their challenging disposition and outlook on life. One of my proudest moments was attending an overnight session with a junior Agricultural Minister with a group of 15 people none of whom were acquainted. By about 2.00am there were 4 of us left with the Minister who said how strange it was that the last people to leave a room, in his experience, were Nuffield Scholars, of course all 4 of us were Scholars! I am equally proud now to serve as Chairman of CRFT, a charity which has funded 11 Nuffield Scholars so far and hopes to add to that cohort every year. We have a great opportunity to introduce our Scholars to influencers in our operating region through our annual dinner and conference. It’s wonderful to see some parochial thinking challenged by people who have grasped the opportunity to travel and study and our invitees leave with mindsets breached and an understanding that there is a world out there! That alone should be enough to say thank you Nuffield!